Taveras is widely regarded as a rare talent and is a year younger. He has more years under his belt in the minors too. Because I view Sale as a 'game-changer', it'd take some type of young/younger 'game-changing' player in return to pry him away. And, since even the best minor leaguers are never a sure thing, I'd need to see more than just that one guy in return.

Of course, again - no way StL would pull the trigger on that. They have no reason to, and they're not idiots. But that's what'd I'd need to see as a return for Sale to be OK with it.

Taveras is widely regarded as a rare talent and is a year younger. He has more years under his belt in the minors too. Because I view Sale as a 'game-changer', it'd take some type of young/younger 'game-changing' player in return to pry him away. And, since even the best minor leaguers are never a sure thing, I'd need to see more than just that one guy in return.

Of course, again - no way StL would pull the trigger on that. They have no reason to, and they're not idiots. But that's what'd I'd need to see as a return for Sale to be OK with it.

From a club standpoint, trading Sale would be like the 88 Sox trading Jack McDowell. And Sale already is more accomplished than McDowell was in 88.

I disagree that those are comparable situations. By the time McDowell was as established as Sale, the Sox were competitive and had lots of pieces in place to become very good in a very short amount of time. It's hard to say 1988 McDowell is like Sale at any point--he went 5-10 and spent the entire next year in the minors. When he came back up and established himself as a permanently good starter, the team had Ventura, Fernandez, Thomas later in the year, and a very good group of people around him too.

I would say Sale is about where McDowell was in '91. The '91 Sox vs the '13 Sox is a silly comparison.

The benefits of having young players under salary control (especially for St Louis who doesn't really buy out arbitration years) is too valuable for a team like St Louis, who builds primarily from within.

I disagree that those are comparable situations. By the time McDowell was as established as Sale, the Sox were competitive and had lots of pieces in place to become very good in a very short amount of time. It's hard to say 1988 McDowell is like Sale at any point--he went 5-10 and spent the entire next year in the minors. When he came back up and established himself as a permanently good starter, the team had Ventura, Fernandez, Thomas later in the year, and a very good group of people around him too.

I would say Sale is about where McDowell was in '91. The '91 Sox vs the '13 Sox is a silly comparison.

I was looking at this from the club perspective, not the player perspective. I think the 2013 Sox are about where the 88 Sox were. The pieces are different, and at different stages of development, but overall the picture is similar.

It will take two years to overhaul the starting lineup. If we focus on defense and fundamentals, we can be competitive again in 2015, similar to the 1990 Sox.

Given that we can overhaul the starting lineup in two years, it makes perfect sense to keep Sale, just like it made perfect sense to Larry Himes to keep Jack McDowell in 88.

Now we just need to hit home runs on our high draft picks in 2014 and 2015.

__________________The universe is the practical joke of the General at the expense of the Particular, quoth Frater Perdurabo, and laughed. The disciples nearest him wept, seeing the Universal Sorrow. Others laughed, seeing the Universal Joke. Others wept. Others laughed. Others wept because they couldn't see the Joke, and others laughed lest they should be thought not to see the Joke. But though FRATER laughed openly, he wept secretly; and really he neither laughed nor wept. Nor did he mean what he said.